An extract from Caligari To Libeskind, the documentary I made in 2009.

On this website, you can find all the 25 episodes of jazz radio show I hosted and produced in 2011-12.

Poster for A Journey Through Iranian Cinema with Mark Cousins (UK title: On the Road with Mark Cousins), a short documentary I made last year, available for rental in North America here.

The poster for our exhibition in Ankara, Turkey

2018February
I've curated a small retrospective of jazz on film for the cinematheque of Helsinki to commemorate the Black History Month in Finland. For the list of films to be shown go here. Info in Finnish available here at the website of the cinematheque.2017

December

The
Turkish translation of my Samuel Khachikian essay which originally
appeared on Sight & Sound was published in Sekans magazine. If you
read Turkish, download it here.

November

Introducing a screening of Still Life (Sohrab Shahid Saless) at Goethe-Institut London. (Sat 11 November 2017 17:30)

The first issue of the magazine Underline was published. I served as the editor-in-chief. It's an ongoing quarterly publication in limited print and free digital edition in two languages, Persian and English. [Persian +] [English +]

There are two essays by me published on a new book from Intellect, The World Cinema Directory: Iran 2. Edited by Parviz Jahed, one essays concerns Iranian documentaries about Cinephilia and the other is on Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa's Jerry and Me.

NovemberNov 2-5: Attending conference Images Under Construction - Iranian Cinema before and after 1979 where I presented “And Then Fear Filled The Forest”: Brick and Mirror, the Poet and the Power, introduced the screening of films by Ebrahim Golestan and Kamran Shirdel and had the second preview screening of Filmfarsi at Stadkino.

14 July: A Tribute to Abbas Kiarostami. Along with Geoff Andrew and Mania Akbari, I'll be introducing Close-Up by Kiarostami at the Close-Up cinema in London. More here.

24 Monthly has published my piece on Ernst Lubitsch's Shop Around the Corner.JuneThe second two weeks:Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato. I've curated a retrospective of Golestan Film Studio. Mr. Golestan will attend the program in person. I'll interview him on stage with my friend Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa on June 28th.I'll be introducing new documentary "Nicolas Roeg: It's About Time" and talking to its director David Thompson at Il Cinema Ritrovato, Sala Auditorium - Laboratori delle Arti UniBo, June 27, 18:30.The first two weeks:I'll participating in Danish Film Institute's season of Iranian cinema, IRAN 1960-90, with film introductions (presenting Downpour and The Traveler, both June 12), a talk on Iranian new wave cinema and finally a sneak preview of a my new documentary film, Filmfarsi, about the popular cinema in pre-revolutionary Iran (June 10). All the events will be held at the cinematheque.April30th: Cambridge - Teaching a crash course on Iranian Contemporary Cinema. More here.25th-27th: Presenting films and interviewing Mania Akbari on stage, after the screening of her films at Cambridge Art Picturehouse. [Films +++]25th: Participating in the Wired talk series at the Anglia Ruskin University ARU with Mania Akbari23th: My essay on Jacques Rivette has been published in 24 Monthly (left pic).15th: I'll be delivering a talk at the University of Basque Country, Bilbao, on Film Culture, Programming, and Cultural Translation.

MarchPublished articles:- Review of Istanbul Silent Cinema Days + Les Vampires for 24 Monthly.- Review of Gianfranco Rosi's Fuocoammare for Honar va Cinema.- Review of the Berlinale for Film Monthly.FebruaryA Simple Event: Tales from Iranian New Wave Cinema
Cinematheque of Helsinki, February 2-20

This is an expanded version of my Simple Event program for Il Cinema Ritrovato in June-July 2015.
For the line-up of the films to be screened and my introductory essay visit the official website, here.

2015

December

I have contributed two chapters (on film noir and western directors) to the new book, Rahnamay-e Genre (A Guide to 10 Movie Genres), edited by Yahya Natanzi, and published by Cheshmeh Press in Iran.

30th - Again, Jonathan Rosenbaum and I will be the guests of Bilkent University in Ankara for a discussion about cinephilia, hosted by Ahmet Gürata.

29th - Jonathan Rosenbaum and I will be introducing films from our Jazz Goes to the Movies show at the Festival on Wheels in Ankara, a day-long event which is free admission. More info here.

Read/watch some of the media coverage from the Ankara event here and here. (All these news pieces have two things in common: a) they have mentioned the jazz show, b) they've misspelled my name. Here, here, here, and here.)

The cinematheque of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is holding a retrospective of western genre, based on my book The Westerns. I've personally selected the films which includes masterpieces by Andre de Toth, Joseph H. Lewis, Raoul Walsh, Allan Dwan, John Ford, Budd Boetticher, and Delmer Daves.

An article on cinema, architecture and urbanism for the Donyaye Eghtesad newspaper which can be downloaded here.

I participated in three panels (as well as introduced two films) as part of Iranian Cinema Day at One World Film Festival in Wales which coincided with the Persian New Year, Nowruz. A short radio interview conducted on the same day can be accessed here. Also BBC Persian has covered the event on their website.Wrong Side of the Road: Notes on Berlinale 2015 in Film Monthly.

FebruaryMy review of Whiplash appears on 24 Monthly. [cover above]

January

Digital edition

Paperback edition

British Cinema in Iran: A Brief History in Didgah: New perspectives on UK-Iran Cultural Relations (edited by Nick Wadham-Smith and Danny Whitehead), British Council, 2015

I have contributed a chapter to the British Council published book (digital and paperback) Didgah: New Perspectives on UK-Iranian Cultural Relations. My chapter focuses on the reception of British cinema in Iran. It is a combination of general and personal histories, moving from silent era up to the post-revolutionary film culture.

2014

A LIST OF ESSAYS FROM LATE 2014 AS APPEARED ON FILM MONTHLY AND 24 MONTHLY: White Screen, Thin Cinema [London Film Festival report]Freight Trains, Aircrafts and a Rose [On William Wellman]Solos and Jams of an American Director [On Clint Eastwood and Jazz]Like One of Truffaut's Dreams [Il Cinema Ritrovato report; also published online here]Cinema, Octavo [Review of The 50 Year Argument (David Tedeschi, Martin Scorsese)]Days & Nights of Hunchback [Open City Docs + Edinburgh International Film Festival reports; also published online, here, here, here and here]

November

I've contributed to the second issue of a new documentary film journal from Iran, Ciné Vérité [in Farsi: Cinema Haghighat, image below]. The subject is the documentary poll conducted by Sight & Sound.

My newest book, The Art of Movie Poster has been published by my usual publisher Kasra. See the teaser below.

September

Interview with Mohammad Rasoulof for the October issue of Sight & Sound.

August

Western Cinema, published in August, 2014.

My book on Westerns was published by Rawzanekar. I'm glad to say that this 232-page book was designed by Aziz Sa'ati, the director of photography of films by Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Ebrahim Hatamikia.

June

Cinemadoosti: Documenting Iran - A celebration of contemporary Iranian documentary exploring daily life in Iran and cinemadoosti (the Persian word for cinephilia) on the public memory and imagination.

I'm partly responsible for this Open City Docs retrospective (17-22 June, 2014), having written the catalogue essay and selected/suggested some of the films in it.

Life May Be (Mark Cousins and Mania Akbari), a film which I've co-produced with Don Boyd, was premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and later in July was screened at Karlovy Vary International Festival.

May

I was interviewed by Von Jehns Dens for Amnesty.de. The subject: Iranian cinema.

April

I have supervised designing the Cinema of Childhood website at cinemaofchildhood.com. I am also the editor of this online venue which is a touring film season of 17 films about children from all around the world. The season is curated by the filmmaker Mark Cousins, and inspired by his feature documentary A Story of Children and Film. Cinema of Childhood was launched in April 2014 at Filmhouse in Edinburgh, BFI Southbank and other key venues.

Read my short essays on three Mohammad Ali Talebi films on the Cinema of Childhood website. [+]

Few days later: A distorted, mutilated transcription of Fribourg panel appears on BBC Persian website.

April 3: talked to Kenyan film students over skype. The subject was Iranian cinema in general and Kiarostami's Close-Up in particular. The event was organized by Celluloid Liberation Front.

On April 2, 2014, I'll participate in a panel discussion about Iranian cinema in Fribourg, Switzerland. The occasion is a retrospective of Iranian films at the Fribourg International Film Festival which later, in June, will travel to Edinburgh.

The Swiss Tages-Anzeiger has published an interview with me about Iranian cinema as their warming-up for an upcoming retrospective of Iranian films at the Fribourg International Film Festival. (see April)
If you're a German reader, the interview is online here.

February

Recently, a publisher in Iran asked me to write some notes to be put on the back cover of the three newly translation books on Jean-Luc Godard, Gary Cooper and Humprey Bogart. These titles are out now.

Exhibition in Tehran

The following pictures are from me and Naiel Ibarrola's exhibition of cinema, jazz and comic strip melting pot at Tehran's Aun Gallery which we have named Cine Comic Strip. To my surprise, the website of Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken note of our rather odd effort. On the day I'm writing this, only two days is left from the 10 day long event which was received relatively well in Iran.

2013

November

October

31th

SOAS (University of London) will show A Journey Through Iranian Cinema with Mark Cousins and after the screening I'll participate in a Q&A with Mark and Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad. More info here.

12th

The EasternBreeze Film Festival in Toronto screened A Journey Through Iranian Cinema with Mark Cousins in their documentary competition section. The official website here.

On the same day, and in the same continent, the film was shown at the 30th Middle East Studies Film Festival, held in the city of New Orleans. The brochure can be downloaded here.

New articles in Film Monthly 464: The Cinema of Misfits (from my series on women cinema, this one about Shirley Clarke) + Becket, Pinter and Pandora's Box (comparing cinephilic obsessions to the Krapp's Last Tape!).

August

Started my job as a film programmer for Levant TV, selecting documentary and fiction films from the countries of the Middle East.

July

On the death of my friend, Ahmad Jorghanian, for Film Monthly 460 [picture on the left]. I'm working on a film about him.

June

The month of Edinburgh International Film Festival. My daily reports of the festival for Cinemaema, the most visited film website in Farsi, are here: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Aside from these seven dispatches I have some video interviews from festival on Fandor's Keyframe which you can see here (with Mark Cousins) and here (with David Cairns)

May

During May and June (and in some parts of April) I was the co-editor of Cinemaema.com, the most visited film website in Farsi which enjoys half a million visits per month.

April

March

On the first day of the month my translation of Houshang Golmakani's "50 Essential Iranian Films" published in Keyframe. I also contributed some bits and pieces in the process of assembling the piece which was actually initiated by me. It's a very interesting guide to Iranian cinema and shouldn't be missed. [+]

February

February 2013 turned out to be one of the busiest months in recent years, as far as publishing is concerned. The most auspicious event of the month, was Jonathan Rosenbaum's 70th birthday that Keyframe celebrated it by running my recent interview with Jonathan about jazz and film criticism, along with a video portrait by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky and Kevin B. Lee. Meanwhile, on my blog I published more audio/video stuff which can be accessed here.

Later on, the interview was published in Romanian (here) and Farsi (Film Monthly).

My first piece of film criticism, written for Tajrobeh [a journal of art and humanities], was published near the end of February. It was on Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa's documentary Jerry & ME.

From Film 455: On Sergiu Nicolaescu which is, more or less, what I already said here on my blog. [see image below]

From the same issue, a review of Neil Young Journeys by Jonathan Demme.

The Iranian 24 [frame] Monthly published a translation of my favorite documentaries of 2012 (with exception of Jerry & ME which I'm going to explain later on my blog), plus a note by me on Il deserto rosso. The table of contents of the 36th issue of 24 can be checked here.

The article I wrote after the passing of Romanian director, actor and politician Sergiu Nicolaescu became one of the most read posts of my blog in less than four days, and it was enthusiastically received in Romania. The daily newspaper Adevărul wrote about that, and later, the complete article, translated into Romanian appeared on Dilema Veche [picture above].

Best of 2012: You can read my best of the year picks and lists at Keyframe [here and here] and Notebook, the latter being the 5th fantasy double feature poll.

I continued my musing on women cinema for the Film Monthly, this time, on Ida Lupino, for the 453th issue.

2012

November

Freedom and Organization: a report from 56th London Film Festival for Iranian Film Monthly.

October

Film Monthly 449: Notes on women cinema & four articles about Dorothy Arzner.

Miniatures in Motion: Iran in color dreams and visions of Stan Brakhage on NOTEBOOK

On Victor Sjöström and his influence on Bergman for 24 Monthly. (Download it here)

From 413th issue of Film Monthly:
- On Dede Allen
- On John Ford's Bucking Broadway.
- On Blast Of Silence.

JuneReview of Celluloid Architecture book appeared in 24 Monthly. In the same issue and under the section, auteur's note, I introduced my book.

Published works from 412th Film Monthly:
- On Dennis Hopper
- Reviewing Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro.
May

From 411th issue of Film Monthly:
On Victor Fleming and reflections of his character in Clark Gable's Rhett Butler.
On Fritz Lang's Clash by Night.
Obituary: Kathryn GraysonShargh, an important daily newspaper, reviewed Celluloid Architecture book.

So long Eric, an essay on Eric Rohmer + Reading film frames: a new approach to studying and analyzing films appeared in the 410th issue of Film Monthly.

AprilMy essay on Jean Grémillon‎, from the 409th issue of Film Monthly, apparently the first article in Farsi about the great French filmmaker published.

A positive review of Celluloid Architecture book appears in Shahra Ara Daily, one of Mashhad's three biggest newspapers. [read here]

Three new articles in the 405th issue of Film Monthly:
- On Man Ray, the filmmaker.
- On H. C. Potter's early post modern masterpiece, Hellzapoppin'
- On Sacha Guitry's Le roman d'un tricheur

2009

December

An homage to the cinema of Joseph M. Newman concerning his centennial in the 404th issue of Film Monthly, accompanied with two other pieces on Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey and Public Domain films.

Screening my documentary From Caligari to Libeskind in Khayyam University.

Lecturing on "cinema & architecture - the meanings of image," for architecture students of Khayyam University.

November

Three pieces published in 402th issue of Film Monthly: On Tiffany studios in early 1930s; remembering Singing in the rain; on Braineaters.

Publishing two of my pieces (a comparison between Sherlock Holmes series and Moto's in the historical context of WW II and spy films; the second one, on Michael Curtiz'sYoung Man With a Horn and fictional jazz bio-pics.

My interview with German Silent film composer and pianist, EkkehardWölk, appeared in the 402th issue of the Film Monthly. The English version will be printed in the upcoming issue of Film International Quarterly.

October

From the 401th issue of Film Monthly my new column Bazkhaniha[rediscoveries] started.

A new collection of my writings appears in Film Monthly:
- Tracing the landing on moon in history of cinema.
- On British screen writer, Alec Coppel.
- Introducing Gerald Peary's For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism to Iranian film goers.
- On Early Katharine Hepburn films.
- First article from a humorous series on bad movies (this one about Ray Kellogg)
- My response to David Thomson's inequitable note on An American In Paris, in his book "Have you seen?"

September

A very long piece that I've wrote on history and aesthetic of movie posters appeared in a special issue of Film publications.

Three long essays for mini-retrospectives in International Fajr Film Festivel: John Ford (Oscar winning films), Alfred Hitchcock (British period), and Francis Ford Coppola (in the 1970s).

2008

Cover of Vertigo's 50th anniversary

October

I was the guest editor of a special issue of Art Monthly, celebrating 50th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, including my introduction to this anthology of writings and interviews and also a piece on meanings of place and space in film.

February

After a year of work (including 2 months of editing) my first documentary film, From Caligari to Libeskind, about German expressionist cinema and architecture of the 1920s and its longing influence on history of art and architecture was screened for a small group of colleagues and friends. Since then, due to some references to Holocaust in the film, I haven't been able to screen the film in Iran.

January

Teaching genre studies in a cultural institute in Northeast of Iran.

2007

Teaching "Space in Cinema" (architecture, city, landscape and cityscape in movies), from 2007. An audio tape of one the courses is available here:

Teaching film history in Agah Film. The course successfully went on for more than 30 sessions (nearly 100 hours.)

Design project: a cinematheque for Mashhad, Iran.

2003

Curated two retrospectives for Khorasan's society of film critics, on comedy genre and westerns.

2002

Organized two retrospectives for the cinema of John Huston and Sam Peckinpah (shown occasionally in 35mm prints, something quite rare in Iran) at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.

Personal and general notes on "an invention without a future," and its association with other arts, mainly jazz and architecture. For more information about my recent publication and activities please see this page.